Golden Globe Superhero Snubs

December 29th, 2017

Superhero movies don't often win prestigious awards, aside from technical categories such as makeup and special effects. (Heath Ledger's posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Dark Knight is a major exception.) This year was supposed to change that, due to Wonder Woman and Logan redefining the genre.

Alas, if the 2018 Golden Globes predict the Academy Awards, then comic book fans won't have much to celebrate.

So, What Went Wrong?

Despite Wonder Woman's incredible box office success — becoming the highest-grossing film ever from a female director — it may have just been too much of a traditional superhero origin story for awards season, which tends to reward thematic heaviness. And while Logan had a far heavier tone, Stewart may have lost his spot to All The Money In The World's Christopher Plummer, who replaced Kevin Spacey at the last minute to distance the film from the wave of sexual harassment revelations sweeping Hollywood.

Speaking of which, failing to nominate Jenkins for best director — or any other women, for that matter — felt to many observers like especially bad optics this year.

Other Golden Globes snubs include Lady Bird's Greta Gerwig, The Big Sick's Kumail Nanjiani, Mudbound's Dee Rees and Get Out's Jordan Peele (though Lady Bird and Get Out both received nominations for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy). Can anything explain all of these oversights?

2017 Just Had Too Many Great Films To Choose From

In any normal year, all of these snubbed movies and their creators would be locks for nominations, but 2017 gave us so many excellent titles. We can begrudge the Golden Globes for overlooking many worthy candidates, but few moviegoers can argue with nominations for Dunkirk, Call Me By Your Name, The Post, The Shape Of Water, Battle Of The Sexes, Molly's Game, The Disaster Artist, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and more instant classics. (However, the Academy may choose differently.)

So, it's a sad day for superhero movies, but a great year for other movies — and who says we can't be fans of both?